Since the late 19th century, Japanese art has been schizophrenically split into yoga (Western-style) and nihonga (Japanese-style). The latter arose as a self-conscious response to the inroads of the former. Nevertheless, when nihonga took up the challenge of Western art, it was unable to avoid borrowing some of its ideas, most notably the romantically inflated concept of the “divine” artist. But instead of Michelangelo or van Gogh, nihonga found its role models in the elite artist/craftsmen of the Rinpa school. The Yamatane Museum of Art’s exhibition What Did Nihonga Learn from Rinpa? uses 50 mainly large works to look at echoes of the school in the works of 20th-century nihonga artists. Particularly worth seeing is Kaii Higashiyama’s vast seascape Rising Tide and Gyoshu Hayami’s Falling Camellias.

Giveaway!
Metropolis is offering readers ten free tickets to “What Did Nihonga Learn from Rinpa?” For your chance to see this excellent exhibition, email the following information by Wednesday, December 17, to editor@metropolis.co.jp:

A mirror vendor pitching his wares, a sculptor
working on a portrait, and a skilled carpenter making a table
leg. Creating a permanent record of peoples professions
was just one of the uses the ancient Romans had for sculpture.
But all work and no play makes Julius a dull boyor Juliana
a dull girl, for that matter. Prevailing fashions, hairstyles
and ornamentation of the day also caught the sculptors
eye.

These are just some of the subjects of ancient Roman portrait
sculpture in Testimony of Life, currently showing
at The National Museum of Western Art in Ueno. The exhibition
is divided into six parts, with the first, Birth of
Portraiture, comparing early Roman sculpture with Hellenistic
Greek and Etruscan examples. While the majority of Roman works
in the exhibition were rendered in smooth white marble, here
you can see a few Etruscan portraits of young boys made from
earthy, red terracotta.

Bust
portrait of Manilia Hellas,
c. 110-120 A.D., marble, 59x34x21cm

The Etruscan portraits are naturalistically
represented, but a Roman marble copy (c. 120-130 B.C.) of
a Greek sculpture of the philosopher Bias looking wise and
stern illustrates the Greek concern for trying to grasp the
ideal beyond mere physical resemblances.

This style was to influence the Roman artistic tradition,
which can be seen in many of the sculptures in the Symbol
of the Empire section, where renderings of Julius Caesar,
Augustus and Trajan allow us to put faces to some familiar
names.

The section Mode in the Antiquity highlights the
elaborate coiffures and wigs that adorned the crowns of Romes
most distinguished women. One of these, named Manilia Hellas,
is topped with artificial braids running from ear to ear that
stand up rigid and resemble hair bands.
Her natural hair carefully covers the frame of the wigs to
make this artifice look like the work of nature. Also on display
here are various hairpins, vases and unguentaria, small vials
for holding perfumed oils or cosmetic lotions to beautify
the living but also often put in tombs as gifts for the deceased.

Death, then, leads into the next section,
Portraiture and Eternity, which looks at some
images that the Romans left behind for posterity. In contrast
to Christian tomb imagery familiar to us todayarms crossed
and formala full-body sculpture (c.120-130 AD) from
the tomb of the liberated slave Claudia Semne portrays her
as Venus sleeping, casually reclining as though taking an
afternoon nap. The soft curves of the drapery contrast well
with a bust, also on display, of the same woman in lifeupright
and proud. Both of these sculptures were commissioned after
her death by her husband who, like many liberated slaves,
was actually quite rich.

The last section, The End of Ancient Portraiture,
looks at the impact of the newly sanctioned religion of Christianity
on Roman imagery. A mosaic portrait shows the wife of Fl.
Iulius Iulianus holding her hands up and out to her sidesa
common early Christian form of devotion.

The National Museum of Western Art,
Tokyo Until May 30. 7-7 Ueno-Koen, Taito-ku. Tel. 03-5777-8600.
Open Tue-Sun (except May 3 and when national holidays fall
on Mon). Adm: Adults ¥1,300, students ¥900, children
under 15 free (taped guides are available for ¥500,
in Japanese only). Nearest stn: Ueno, park exit. www.
nmwa.go.jp